On Friday, November 17, 2023, a private individual and a police officer were arrested by the Internal Affairs Service of the Security Forces, accused of – as the case may be – membership in a criminal organization, fraud by complicity and follow-up, breach of duty by follow-up and forgery.

In particular, as emerged from the investigation of the relevant complaint, the defendants, using misleadingly the information of a large foreign company, attracted interested clients from all over the country, in order to undertake as consultants their inclusion in the out-of-court debt settlement mechanism.

In order to achieve their goal, the private man managed the company based in Athens having posted an online form on social media in order to attract customers while the police officer, who concealed his real identity, presented himself as an economist-lawyer making phone calls with customers even during the performance of his official duties.

After convincing their victims, they asked for and received sums of money, concluding a relevant contract to undertake the process, while not proceeding with the actions they had agreed upon.

In fact, the police officer, in his attempt to justify the high fee he was asking for, presented that the company owned by his co-accused provides “premium” services, thus obtaining quite high sums of money, while he even asked for taxisnet codes of the victims, even though this was not necessary for the process.

His remuneration was based on percentages per advance paid by each customer, with whom the company entered into a contract, while his total monthly income amounted to approximately -3,000- euros.

From the searches carried out in homes, workplaces as well as in the possession of the arrested, among others, the following were found and confiscated:

mobile phones,

32,250 euros,

fake identity card,

computers

handwritten notes and

vehicle, in order to check its legality as regards its import and circulation in the Greek territory.

From the investigation so far, -8- cases of fraud have been uncovered, for which the defendants extracted amounts ranging from 1,000 to 30,000 euros, obtaining from 2021 a total of -73,550- euros.

At the same time, it was found that convictions were pending against the individual for violation of a court order, animal abuse, continuous and serial defamation, fraud, impersonation of an Authority, continuous defamation of an anonymous company and forgery after use.

Those arrested, with the case filed against them, were taken to the competent prosecutor’s office.